


All the Isles a Stage

by EaglePursuit



Series: Unfolded [1]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Amity's Grom Note - Freeform, F/F, First Kiss, Grom Tiaras - Freeform, Hexside Academy of Magic and Demonics, Lake Lacuna, Lumity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26392882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EaglePursuit/pseuds/EaglePursuit
Summary: Luz and Amity rehearse for roles in the Hexside school play. Meanwhile, Luz is trying to track down the intended recipient of Amity's Grom-posal note and Amity is being blackmailed by Edric and Emira. Part 1 of the Unfolded series
Relationships: Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Series: Unfolded [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918171
Comments: 69
Kudos: 377





	1. The Healing Arts

**Author's Note:**

> Based on: The Owl House  
> Created by: Dana Terrace
> 
> Takes place one week after Young Blood, Old Souls

All the Isles a Stage

Chapter 1 

The Healing Arts

Mr. Skanderby stood at the lectern by his desk and droned on about humors and essences, the fundamentals of Healing Theory. He was fairly unremarkable looking for a Boiling Isles witch from Luz Noceda’s perspective as an outsider. He was nearly human-looking, except for his pointy ears. He was middle-aged, but tall and lean, pale-skinned with salt-and-pepper hair and a carefully maintained handlebar mustache. That particular day he was wearing an off-white shirt with thin, crimson stripes running vertically and wide, starched collar and cuffs. He wore a heavy, canvas apron over his brown corduroy pants. The apron was stained where he had wiped miscellaneous viscera off his hands.

Occasionally, Mr. Skanderby’s droning would be interrupted when he would dramatically emphasize this or that diagram scrawled on the chalkboard behind him. When he did this, his pointy ears would twitch upward and the bored students sitting before him would jump, including Luz. _It’s never a good sign when you walk into a classroom and there’s one of those things_ , she thought idly about the lectern.

The healing track classroom was lined with models and diagrams of the internal workings of the more common anatomies exhibited by Boiling Isles witches. As a typical teenager, Luz had already surreptitiously scrutinized the reproductive organs on the various diagrams, marvelling at the variety of morphologies and speculating on possible compatibility with human organs. 

Among the more fascinating objects in the classroom was a model skull of the witch-type Luz informally thought of as the ‘eyeball-face witches’, of which her schoolmate Eileen was a member. The skull was as thin as an eggshell and mostly devoted to the singular, oversized eye socket. It was hard for Luz to imagine it would hold up well to any kind of impact. In her boredom she fantasized about breaking it; the model, of course, not Eileen’s skull. Luz didn’t have anything against the girl.

While Healing was not the most prestigious coven in the Boiling Isles, its members were always in high demand, due to the typically less than safe conditions in the Demon Realm. One’s life could be endangered by something as quotidian as a rainstorm, or from being assaulted by any number of building-sized demons that roamed the streets. Therefore, the healing track classes were always nearly full of students. Luz sat at a worktable next to her friend Viney, who was cross-tracking like her. Unlike Luz, Viney was only studying healing and beast keeping. Luz was studying all the tracks.

While she should have been paying close attention to Mr. Skanderby’s lesson, Luz’s mind was preoccupied. This was her first day back at Hexside after saving her mentor Edalyn Clawthorne from a near-petrification at the hands of Emperor Belos. Eda had permanently lost her extensive magical abilities as a result. While she had put on a brave face at first, it was life-altering, and Luz had remained home for a week to help her adjust to being a non-magical person, an ironic inversion of their previous roles in each other’s lives. 

For a witch, losing magic was akin to having both their hands amputated. It completely changed the way they live their life. Tasks that were as effortless as waving a finger in a circle suddenly became incredibly more tedious and time-consuming. It was not surprising to Luz that Eda’s spirits flagged as she ran up against her new limitations, which is why she stayed home to help. She had raided Eda’s stash of human junk for humanity’s one commendable contribution to the multiverse, labor-saving devices. Luz taught Eda how to use a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, and other, similar curiosities.

On the plus side, Eda was sometimes joined by her formerly estranged and also newly magicless sister, Lilith. Enduring the frustrations together made them more bearable for the Clawthorne sisters. They took on the newly challenging chores like washing dishes as a pair.

However, Lilith didn’t spend as much time within the confines of the Owl House as Luz had expected. She mostly wandered through the surrounding forests. Luz suspected she was coming to terms with her guilt that she had harbored since childhood. Everyone tried to be as welcoming as they could. Even Hooty was coming around to her, albeit with some reluctance. But she still seemed uncomfortable in her sister’s home. When she didn’t think anyone was looking, she would self-consciously run her fingers through the new streak in her hair or touch her gray eye.

And when Eda and Lilith weren’t learning how to do basic activities like humans, Luz taught them the glyphs she had learned. The sisters felt that the glyph method was cumbersome compared to their previous ‘trace a circle and think it’ method of performing magic, but it was better than nothing. At any rate, things were slowly improving in the Owl House and Luz felt it was time to resume her education.

She was shaken from her contemplations by the sudden flurry of activity as the other healing track students cleared their worktable surfaces. Viney glanced her way with a raised eyebrow to make sure she was back from la la land. Luz hastily slid her notebook off the table and into her open backpack as Mr. Skanderby pushed a cart into the room. _Gosh, I was so wrapped up in my own biz, I didn’t even notice him leave._

The cart was covered in an austere dropcloth, which Mr. Skanderby pulled off with a surprising flourish. Underneath were shallow metal trays, each with a questionably-sourced chunk of flesh on it. Each piece of tissue had been sliced, contused, or sundered in some manner. Many contained broken fragments of bone. Luz regarded the stains on the teacher’s apron with new-found queasiness. He passed a tray out to each student, even placing one on the table in front of Luz despite her not having any healing magic.

The other students began tracing circles in the air with their fingers and watching as the flesh mended. Mr. Skanderby slowly walked up and down the aisles between the tables, watching with a skillful eye and occasionally recommending an adjustment to one or another student’s technique. Luz considered finding a bandaid in her backpack and slapping it on her bit of meat as a joke, but Mr. Skanderby didn’t seem to be the type to appreciate a joke despite his extensive lecture on humors.

Instead, she reached in her backpack and pulled out a heavy object, setting it on the table in front of her. Some of the other students stopped to watch curiously, having never seen a microscope before. To them it was yet another one of the eccentricities the strange human seemed to be constantly exhibiting. She had found it in one of the Own House’s storage closets when she was looking for toothbrushes to teach Eda and Lilith how to brush their teeth without magic. Undoubtedly, it was something Owlbert had once hauled through the now-destroyed door to the human realm, because it was in too good of shape to have passed through a trash slug.

Since she had blown the door to her world up to keep Belos from using it, she had developed a strange homesickness when handling human objects; even the microscope, which she had barely had any experience with. So she sighed forlornly as she prepared it for its work. Her only previous experience with microscopes was in the form of a quick introduction in freshman science at her high school back home. She never would have guessed that the skill would come in handy for such an unusual purpose.

She cringed and lifted the sticky hunk of tissue off the tray with her fingertips and placed it on the microscope’s stage. Then she looked through the eyepiece and adjusted the knobs until the surface of the flesh came into focus.

Luz nudged Viney with her elbow. “Can you throw me a heal spell, please? Just a little on the top.”

“No problem.” Viney winked conspiratorially and traced a small circle with her finger. The piece of flesh on the microscope began knitting together with a slight sloppy sucking sound.

Luz peeked in through the eyepiece again. She watched as the organic material rearranged itself from broken and mangled blobs to organized structures. As it did, the cells displayed a glowing glyph with multiple intersecting ogees. Luz was not surprised to see it. She was getting the hang of finding them. She pulled a blank card from her pocket and a pen and quickly drew the shape. Then she pulled a second card out and copied it. The first one was for her to memorize later and share with Eda and Lilith. 

She placed the piece of flesh back on the tray, and as Mr. Skanderby walked by, she slapped the second card down on the meat, activating it. The card was consumed and the tray rattled with alarming clatter, attracting the attention of the class. The flesh knitted together with a loud slurp. It still looked a bit ragged, but it was noticeably improved. “Very good, Ms. Noceda. It needs refinement, but an excellent first attempt,” he commended her.

She quickly copied the glyph onto several more cards, applying them to the flesh on her tray. As was the case with all her glyphs, she had to visualize what she wanted it to accomplish as she activated it. After several tries, the flesh was as healed as Viney’s specimen.

The demon school bell screamed, signifying the end of the class period. Luz put the microscope back in her backpack, rearranging the books inside so that they all fit comfortably, then she slung it over her shoulder. She picked up the tray with the flesh on it and dumped it in a garbage can that had been designated for this purpose by Mr. Skanderby, then stacked the tray on the cart with the other students’ trays on her way out the door.

In the hallway, she waved goodbye to Viney as the girl with a fishhook in her pointy ear left in the other direction, undoubtedly headed for a magical shortcut door. Luz went to the nearest stairwell and climbed the stairs to the second floor. She headed to the atrium, and spotting Boscha loitering near the railing to her left, went around it to the right to get to the hall with her locker.

Since taking on the Conformatorium’s garrison of Emperor’s Coven guards, she wasn’t particularly afraid of the three-eyed grudgby captain. But if Boscha wanted to pick a fight, it would bog Luz down in a tumultuous situation that she could easily avoid by simply going the other way around. However, there was a rumor she had met the Emperor, successfully pleading with him to spare Eda’s life. And it seemed to have spread fairly wide, much to Luz’s annoyance. It was probably Emperor’s Coven propaganda if not just a product of the Hexside gossip mill, but she wondered if it would change how Boscha treated her. _Another time, perhaps._

She found her locker and Willow and Gus were waiting there for her. “Hey, guys!” Luz tickled her locker to open it and exchanged her healing textbook for her potions, being mindful not to leave her fingers in the locker’s mouth for longer than necessary. Her locker had a lot of ‘personality’ and was inclined to nip if not treated with due respect.

“So, how’s Eda?” Willow asked.

“Oh, she’s hanging in there. It’s been tough for her, you know; losing her magic.” Luz shrugged. “At least she wasn’t petrified, I guess.”

Gus adjusted his purple satchel bag. “Yeah, we were there. We leveraged the power of the people in her support!”

Luz smiled. “Aw, thanks guys! Did I miss anything while I was helping out at the Owl House?”

Gus pointed to a flyer posted on a wall nearby. “They announced the school play. It’s Forbearance Betrayed, a classic of Boiling Isles literature.”

Luz walked over to look at the flyer. She had seen several of them posted around the school, but hadn’t stopped to read them. “Oh, tryouts started Wednesday. They're almost over! I better get in on this!”

Willow stood next to her. “Are you sure you want to try out for the school play? It’s a romantic tragedy, you know.”

Luz waved her hand with playful dismissiveness. “Pfft. Of course! I tried out for Romeo and Juliet back in the human realm. But the director said I wasn’t right for the part of Juliet. Something about ‘excessive exuberance’ and ‘an insult to the craft’.” She mimicked these last two parts in a contemptuous tone.

“What happened?” Gus asked.

Luz sighed. “I tried to take my rehearsal up a notch to beat the other girls by using sausages as a prop in Juliet’s death scene.”

“What!?” Gus looked shocked. “They didn’t like that? But sausages are adorable! They’re those fuzzy creatures you showed me on your flat crystal rectangle, right?”

Luz was confused for a second. “Huh? Oh, no. That was a dachshund named Sausage.” The school bell screamed. “Drat! It’s time for class, fellow Hexoleos. I’ll see you guys lata!”

“Good luck with the auditions!” Willow and Gus bade her goodbye.

Luz headed for her potions classroom, but her mind was on the play. The stage lights, the make-up, the costumes, the audience; all of it excited her. Even the prospect of a stage kiss was intriguing. _As long as they don’t ask me to sing._

Next Week:

Chapter 2: An Agreement Proffered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cover art by: TurquoiseGirl35


	2. An Agreement Proffered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity receives visitors at her library hideout

Chapter 2 

An Agreement Proffered

_Several days later_

Amity sat at the desk in her hideout at the Bonesborough Public Library. It was a small room, only eight feet deep and ten feet wide. She had discovered it by happenstance when perusing romance novels that were above her age level several years before. When she first set foot in it, it had been long abandoned and falling apart. She carefully rebuilt the shelves and provided a chair and the desk as its only furnishings. 

She was writing in her diary with a pen. _I got my cast off today. It’s very liberating to be able to walk around again without using a crutch, although the healing witch said I shouldn’t push myself too hard or I’ll get tired._

_I’m saving the cast, even though it smells like an unwashed sock. Luz drew a cute picture on it of us and Willow in grudgby uniforms and signed her name. She said it’s a human custom. I put it under my bed. I’m going to try to find something to get the smell out. Otherwise Mother will make me throw it away when she inevitably finds it._

_I feel like I’ve missed so much while I was recuperating. Mother insisted that I stay in bed as much as possible when I wasn’t at school. I wasn’t even able to get to the library to write in my diary. Although I did sneak out once to visit my friends. But so much has happened since then._

_Mother and Father left this morning to go to the Emperor’s castle for some emergency summons. They packed for a week, so it’s just Em, Ed, and I for a while, I guess._

As she wrote she fiddled absentmindedly with her bookmark, a ripped strip of pink paper. It had one word written on it, ‘Luz’. It was the top half of a note she had written with the intention of asking Luz to attend Grom with her. Amity had almost given the note to Luz several times, but fear of rejection stopped her short. At each attempt the creeping anxiety would rise in her belly and make her nauseated; she just couldn’t do it. In the end it worked out pretty well though, nearly marvellously. Luz offered to be Amity’s Grom date, but only as friends. It felt wonderful and defeating, all at the same time and left Amity with so many difficult questions.

The morning after Grom, Amity had gone back to the clifftop where they defeated Grometheus the Fearbringer together and searched for the halves of the note that the terror beast had torn. She didn’t like loose ends. You don’t become top student by leaving things to chance. When you’re at the top, control is the name of the game, and if Luz ever found out and spurned her, her life would spin out of control. Or at least, that’s how Amity felt.

She found the top half of the note under the boughs of the tall pink tree that had grown out of the remains of Grometheus, but not the bottom half. It irked her. She looked everywhere for it. In the end, she assumed the bottom half must have blown away in the wind overnight or been eaten by some demon. _It would have to suffice; it’s not like anyone could learn anything with just half the note anyway, right?_ The half she did find was now safely ensconced in her diary; the perfect place for a secret.

There was a grinding noise behind Amity. It was familiar to her; the sound of the mechanisms that opened the hidden door to her hideout. She quickly closed her diary with the piece of pink paper inside and slid it onto a hidden shelf on the underside of her desk; a new hiding spot since Luz and the twins found her old one. Not many people knew how to open her hideout, but none of them were people she wanted to share the contents of her diary with.

She turned in her chair as the grinding subsided and the entrance to her private study was open to an aisle in the romance section. There stood her twin siblings, Edric and Emira, smirking insolently as ever. They were dressed in their Hexside uniforms, illusions track, indicating that they had just come from school. Amity had taken an excused absence for the afternoon to have her cast removed and had come straight to the library after stashing the cast in her bedroom, enjoying her renewed mobility and reacquainting herself with her diary. A look of irritation flashed across her face in response to the intrusion. _What do they want?_

Emira strolled casually into the small room. “Our dear little sister, we’re so pleased to see you up and active as ever.” A sly smile played across her face. She stood in the middle of the room with a hand on one hip and bent her other knee slightly in a way that made her posture look elegant. Amity felt a pang of jealousy; she was so awkward compared to Emira.

Edric followed her in and made a show of examining the books on her shelves. Amity knew well enough that he had no interest in any of them. He was trying to get a rise out of her with his obviously feigned fascination. “We didn’t want to disrupt your recuperation with vexatious propositions. But, well...you’re feeling better now and—”

“Ugh, well, what is it?” Amity’s patience was already wearing thin.

Emira picked up where her twin left off. “We found something that belonged to you.” She pulled a small slip of pink paper from a pocket in her uniform tunic and held it up. One edge of it was torn. It was the bottom half of her Grom-posal note. “I assume you know what this is.”

“Wh—where did you find that?” Amity’s skin went cold. 

Edric glanced up from the shelf he was inspecting. “Oh, it was caught in some branches in the forest near school. We found it the day after Grom, but you broke your leg before we could bring it to your attention. Shame on you for littering.”

Amity traced a circle with her finger, intending to magically incinerate the piece of paper, but Emira was faster with a counter-spell. “Nuh uh, Mittens. We know who you were going to ask to Grom; who you were so afraid of being rejected by.” Her face transformed from insolent smirk to full-on mischievous grin.

Amity shook her head. “There’s no way you could know that with just that piece of the note.” _But they wouldn’t be here to tease me if they didn’t._

Edric finally left the books alone and stood next to his twin with a twisted smile to match hers. “Titan’s wounds! It appears little miss perfect doesn’t know everything after all.” He moved his finger in a circle, tauntingly slow. The pink note flashed and the missing portion appeared as a glowing blue apparition; Illusions magic. It did indeed say ‘Luz, will you go to Grom with me? Amity’ just as if it were the complete original.

Amity’s face burned with embarrassment. _Oh farts, they know!_ “I—I was just going to ask her to go as friends. And that’s how it ended up. We went as friends,” she demurred.

Emira clucked her tongue chidingly. “You were already friends with her, Amity. Nobody has a fear of rejection over asking their friend to do something as friends. It’s obvious; you’ve got a thing for the human.”

Amity’s brow knitted as she jumped out of her chair. She growled through her teeth and waved her right arm in a wide orbit as anger filled her. She raised her other hand as a large purple arm erupted from a glowing pink circle on the floor. She pushed her left hand forward, palm flat, and the abomination mimicked her, knocking her siblings to the floor in the library’s aisle. “Get out of here and don’t bother me or Luz!” She turned her back on them with her arms crossed as the abomination melted away.

The twins regained their composure and stood up. Edric leaned against the entrance of the hideout. “Anyway, as we were about to say; you’ve got one week. After that, you have to clean our rooms every other day or we’re telling you know who.” He paused for a moment. “Oh hey, Luz! My, aren’t you looking wonderful today? Such a big smile!”

Amity didn’t turn around. _He’s bluffing._ Then she heard a very familiar voice and her spine went rigid.

“Hey, guys! It looks like all my favorite Blights are here!” Luz greeted them.

“Well, we’re off! Remember Mittens, one week.” Emira called out, then added as parting shot, “Have fun you two!” She emphasized ‘fun’ with a leering tone.

Amity finally spun back around and found herself face to face with Luz. _Ack. She’s standing too close again!_ “Luz, what are you doing here?” she asked as she stumbled backwards.

The tall human girl wore an exuberant grin. “I didn’t see you in class this afternoon and I wanted to share my amazing news with you. Oh hey, you got your cast off!” She was stuffing something into her backpack. A brief glimpse told Amity it was pink. 

_Ugh, did Em give it to her?_ Amity felt the anxiety start in her stomach. She pressed her fingernails into her palms and focused on the sharp pain to ward it off. “Yeah, I guess. Hey, what was that in your bag?”

Luz shrugged. “Just some litter I picked up. Can you believe people? No respect for the environment.”

 _Phew!_ Amity relaxed a little. Only a little. “So what’s your big news?”

Luz did a little bunny hop and spun in a circle with her arms wide. “I got a part in the Hexside production of Forbearance Betrayed!”

Amity found Luz’s energy contagious and smiled. _She’s so cute when she’s excited._ “Wow, that’s great, Luz. You know I—” She paused for a moment. _Wait. It’s not possible, is it?_ She decided to proceed with caution. “So um, what part did you get?”

Luz looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Huh. You know, I don’t really remember. A knight, I think. The director asked me which one I wanted to audition for and I kinda freaked out. I don’t know any of the characters, so just picked one at random.”

 _Okay, there’s, like, six knight roles plus some in the ensemble. So the chances are pretty low. Just keep it together, girl._ Amity took a deep breath and cringed in anticipation. “It wasn’t Sir Meurig, was it?”

Luz’s eyes lit up. “Yep, that’s the one! For sure. Weird name. Is it a big part? I don’t even care. I’m just happy to be in the play.”

 _Sweet Titan, she doesn’t have a clue._ Amity bit her lip and focused on keeping her countenance calm even as she had a meltdown inside. “Of course. I should have known you haven’t read the story. Everyone in the Boiling Isles knows Forbearance Betrayed. It’s a classic.” She turned and walked to one of the shelves on the left side of the hideout. _Here it is._ She pulled an old and worn book from among the titles she kept for herself. “Here. You can have my old one. We are a book club, after all.” She handed it to Luz.

The human felt the textures of the cover with her fingers, then turned it over and read the back, “‘An epic story from the Savage Ages of a forbidden love between the knight, Meurig and the prince, Cadogan.’” Luz gasped. “Wow. I got the lead role, Amity! You know, Willow told me it’s a romantic tragedy. Are there kissing scenes?”

 _Oh my Titan, Luz!_ Amity felt the warmth rise in her cheeks. “Y—yes.”

A suggestive grin spread over Luz’s face. “I’m going to have kissing scenes with Prince Cadogan!” She practically sang it in her excitement. Then a perplexed expression settled on her face. “Wait. Who’s playing Cadogan? It’s not Boscha, is she?”

Amity was caught off guard by the questions. She had been engrossed in watching the drama play out over her crush’s face. _Ah! I have to tell her now or she’ll find out at rehearsal._ “Um, Luz…”

Luz was already racing ahead, seemingly unaware that the questions hadn’t been answered. “Can you imagine kissing someone in front of an audience, with the whole school and your family in attendance? Well, for me it would be Eda and King and maybe even Lilith. But you get the point.”

Amity gasped to herself. This time in horror. _I can’t believe this is really happening!_

The frown lifted from Luz’s face as she continued. “I’m so excited, Amity! It’s going to be such a trip!”

 _Tell her!_ Amity took a deep, ragged breath. “Luz, Boscha was cast in the play, but she tried out for the role of Queen Briellen. She auditioned at the same time as…” She cringed. “Well, at the same time as me. Luz...Luz, I auditioned too. And...I got the part of Cadogan.”

Luz pulled Amity into a hug to her surprise. “Amity!” she squealed. “Oh my gosh! We’re in the play together. We’re going to have scenes together.” She spun around with Amity blushing in her arms. “We can rehearse together!” She released the smaller witch and grinned from ear to ear.

Amity caught her breath and let her face return to its natural shade. _She’s still not getting it._ She steeled her nerve, certain that Luz was going to freak. “Luz…”

Luz’s eyes shot wide and she covered her mouth in alarm. “Amity! We’re going to have a kissing scene together!”

“Actually, Luz. There’s two.” Amity cringed again. _Oh, no! She hates me._ She collapsed against the bookshelf, slid down to the floor, and pulled her legs up to her chest. She buried her face. _Here it comes._

Luz sat down next to her. She didn’t say anything at first, then she lightly rested a hand on Amity’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I wanted to be in the play so badly, I didn’t realize…” She hung her head as well. “Amity, if it bothers you to have to do kissing scenes with me, I’ll resign my part.” She sighed. “I understand.”

Amity’s head shot up and she looked at her crush in confusion. Luz was crestfallen. _She thinks that I don’t want to kiss her._ Amity gasped. _She would give up her acting dream for me. That’s so sweet!_ “No, Luz. No, no, no, no. Don’t resign. It’s fine. If you’re okay with...well, you know, I’m okay too. Really.”

Luz ‘s sad expression evaporated instantly. “Oh thank you, Amity! It’s going to be so much fun!”

Amity smiled back at her, but on the inside she was shell-shocked. The realization was fully dawning on her. Even as she and Luz made plans to rehearse at the Owl House the next day, she was only half paying attention. Her mind raced, near panic. _Oh my Titan. I only tried out for the lead in the play to put another extracurricular on my Emperor’s Coven application. Now I’m going to kiss Luz! In front of the school. In front of my friends. In front of Edric and Emira. Maybe even in front of Mother and Father. Twice!_ All the while, a small part of her brain whispered audaciously, _Kiss her now! Tell her it’s for practice, to make rehearsals less awkward. Tell her you’re willing to rehearse the kissing scenes as much as she wants!_ Amity struggled to repress that line of thought. The chance that Luz might recoil in disgust was too much to risk.

Eventually, Luz stood up and said goodbye in her kind way, then walked out of the hideout hidden in the romance section of the library. She closed the door behind her. But Amity sat there on the floor and stared at the books on the far wall. She had wanted to ask Luz so many things. She had missed out on the field trip and Eda being captured and released. She wanted to ask about Lilith. According to news reports, the older Clawthorne was released from the Emperor’s Coven for corruption, but spared petrification alongside her sister. It was whispered that Luz had fought the whole Emperor’s Coven, although that wasn’t the official account. She had wanted to ask Luz what really happened. But she couldn’t. All she could think about was kissing the human.

Next week:

Chapter 3: Uncrowning Deceivements


	3. Uncrowning Deceivements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz invites Amity to the Owl House to rehearse, but things don't go as planned.

Chapter 3 

Uncrowning Deceivements

Eda had felt ambitious that morning and decided to open her Human Collectibles stand in the market square. It was a considerable undertaking without her magic. She couldn’t just cast a spell to pack all her goods, tent and shelves, and have them bundled in a blanket within a few seconds. She had to do it all by hand, and she reduced the scale of her shop to account for not being able to shrink her tables and shelves to portable size. At least Owlbert’s magic still worked. She put her tent and a selection of human collectibles in a large bag and strapped them to Owlbert’s staff, then climbed on it and flew off to the market.

It was good for Eda’s spirit to run her stand again, to do something that felt normal, but it was also good for her wallet. Without her magic to make potions, Eda was down to just the one hustle. This was her only source of snails since losing her power. And to make it more difficult for her, with the portal destroyed, she would have to rely solely on dissecting beached trash slug carcasses to get human items to sell.

Lilith was also out of the house that day. She was taking her customary constitutional walk through the forests and was expected to be gone most of the day. Luz had initially been suspicious of these walks and sent King to follow her. He reported that she only wandered around and sighed a lot at the trees.

When Lillith had shared her sister’s curse, it stabilized the transformative effect in Eda. Lilith had yet to manifest a beast form as well. So while neither sister could do magic, neither was at risk of suddenly becoming a dangerous creature. With all of this in mind, it became something of an unspoken agreement amongst the residents of the Owl House not to bother Lilith when she went out; she was sorting out her life in her own way.

And so, without any adult supervision to object, Luz had decided to invite her friends over for the first time since Eda’s capture. Gus and Willow were sitting on the floor in the Owl House’s parlor, textbooks open, working together on a history assignment. They were taking and comparing notes; each had to write their own essay on the formation and organization of the Emperor’s Coven. 

Luz still had a week’s worth of history homework to do from her absence in addition to the essay, but she was procrastinating. It seemed that the curriculum and presentation of the subject had been carefully set by the Emperor’s Coven’s propaganda arm to portray the Emperor in the best possible light. Therefore Luz found studying Boiling Isles’ official history rather distasteful in light of her recent experiences. Instead she was reading the old copy of Forbearance Betrayed that Amity had given her.

She laid on the beat up old red couch under Eda’s framed wanted poster. Her head was propped up against the arm and her knees were bent, pointed to the ceiling. The open book rested against her thighs. Whenever she shifted her weight even slightly, the couch’s spring coils would creak under the worn velvet upholstery. This happened each time she turned a page.

The hardbound cover of the book was splitting at the spine, and the pages were yellowed. But Luz knew better than most not to conclude anything about a book’s contents based on its outward appearance. She was engrossed in its florid, operatic plot devices, its archaic language, and the layered love triangle between Meurig, Cadogan, and Queen Briellen. She could see why it remained popular in various formats, even though the Savage Ages had long ago come to an end.

King walked into the parlor from the kitchen with a small bag of pretzels. He jumped up and plopped backwards onto the couch by Luz’s feet with a hearty protest of squeaks from the couch. Luz’s Grom tiara sat regally on his boney head. To be more accurate, it was his Grom tiara that Luz had relinquished to him after the event, as he had instantly taken a liking to it.

King shifted from side to side uncomfortably, creaking the couch’s springs even more, then pulled a torn slip of pink paper out from under his rear end. “Hey, what’s this thing? Are we leaving trash around now to give Eda and Lilith more practice at cleaning by hand?” Before Luz could answer, he crushed some pretzels in his paw and threw them on the floor with a ‘Nyah!’.

Luz sat up and folded her legs with the book still in her lap. She took the piece of paper from King. “No. I found this on the floor at the library. It’s Amity’s note from Grom. I was hoping to figure out who she wanted to ask since she wouldn’t tell me.”

Willow and Gus looked up from their studies in surprise. Willow had a concerned frown on her face. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to pry, Luz. If Amity wanted you to know who she was going to ask, she would have told you. What’s done is done. You defeated Grometheus together and had a good time. Just leave it at that.”

King stood up on the couch and threw the bag of snacks on the floor, then grabbed Luz by the collar of her hoodie. “No! Pry, pry like your life depended on it! Interfere in your friends’ personal lives to satisfy your insatiable human curiosity!”

Luz pushed him away. “Okay easy, King. Here.” She picked up his bag and pulled a snack out, offering it to him. “Have another pretzel.”

King snatched it from her fingers and stuffed it into his mouth with glee.

Gus watched their antics, then his eyes were drawn to a brightly colored object on the floor under the couch. It appeared to be some kind of human item Eda had lost in her flurry of packing to go to the market. He reached into the shadows and pulled it out, examining the fuzzy, yellow sphere in his hand with delight. “It looks kind of like a miniature sun. Is this what humans use to scry the weather?”

King stopped chewing. His eyes lit up and he tracked the motion of the orb as if entranced.

Luz shrugged, answering Gus, “Uh, not really. It’s a sports thing. Give it a throw and see.”

Gus threw the tennis ball and watched as it ricocheted from one wall to another, down the hallway and into another room. “Wow, who knew your sun was so rubbery?”

“What is this strange power that thing has over me!?” King took off after it, the tiara rattling atop his bare skull as he bounded on all four legs in chase.

The three teens watched him go, then returned their attention to their conversation. “Anyway,” said Luz, “if I can find out who Amity was going to ask, I can help her get over her fear of rejection and maybe she can go on a date with them.” _Do I really want that?_ she asked herself as she imagined Amity taking another witch on a date and felt a hint of unease. _Am I jealous?_ She tried to dismiss the notion even as it occurred to her. _No, I just want Amity to be happy._ The unease lingered.

Willow frowned again. “I don’t know, Luz. It’s nice that you want to help, but I think you should just stay out of it.”

“Hey, can I see it? I think I can use an illusion to fill in the missing piece,” Gus volunteered as he stood up. He winked surreptitiously at Willow.

She gave him a disapproving glare as Luz handed him the piece of paper and watched intently as he held it up. Gus raised his finger to begin the spell circle when Hooty’s aggravating, high-pitched voice broke their concentration, “Hoot hooooot, Luz. Your friend with the fake green hair is here!”

“Blast, it’s Amity!” Luz hastily snatched the pink note from Gus’s hand and crammed it inside the back cover of Forbearance Betrayed as Hooty opened the door.

Amity snarled and feinted at Hooty with a fist as she walked past him into the Owl House, having overheard his description of her. Hooty flinched instinctively and pulled back, out of her reach.

“Hey! Amity...Ams...Amo!” Luz stammered nervously as Willow and Gus greeted the new arrival much more nonchalantly. “So, what are you doing here...in the Owl House...right now?”

Amity looked at her askance. “You invited me here, remember; to practice our lines for the play?”

“Right…” Luz gulped. “I did do that.”

Willow sighed and intervened in the conversation to save Luz from her embarrassment. “So Amity, how’s life without the cast?”

Amity held out her newly healed foot. “It’s nice to wear two shoes again. And to get out of the house, of course. My mother was very restrictive. She probably Foresaw that Lilith Clawthorne was going to get dismissed from the Emperor’s Coven and that things would get pretty crazy, so she didn’t want me to get involved.” She looked at Luz who was clutching her old copy of Forbearance Betrayed uncomfortably. “How are you enjoying the book?”

Luz’s posture relaxed and she took a deep breath. “Oh my goodness! I can see why everyone here loves this story. First, Meurig was all ‘Heck, who is this cutey?’ But then he realized it’s Cadogan, the prince he was supposed to take to his Queen for a marriage to seal a peace treaty. So he’s, like, bummed out that he can’t flirt with the prince. And Cadogan hated Meurig because he didn't want to go marry Queen Briellen. Then their flying boat was hit by a storm and they crashed in the Boiling Sea. Meurig saved Cadogan, but was hurt really bad, so Cadogan dragged him into a cave on the coast. That’s when Cadogan fell in love with Meurig. I’m just at the part where Cadogan gave him a magic kiss that heals him, but Meurig wakes up and doesn’t remember it.”

“You don’t have to tell me the whole thing, I’ve read it a dozen times!” Amity said with a giggle.

Luz’s eyes lit up. “Is there really kissing magic like in the story?” She smiled slyly. “That’s the kind of spell I’d like to master!”

The three other witches looked at each other and shook their heads. “I’ve never heard of anything like that in real life,” said Willow. “It’s probably one of those legends from the Savage Ages.” Amity and Gus agreed.

“Well, nobody heard of using glyphs before I found my light spell,” Luz pointed out. “Maybe it’s just another forgotten technique.”

The three looked at each other again. “I guess it’s possible,” Amity conceded. “If you figure it out, you’ll have all the witches lined up for a kiss!” A hint of red graced her cheeks as she said it.

There was a clatter and commotion from the hallway as King returned with the tennis ball in his mouth. The tiara was askew on his head. He spat the ball out on the floor next to Gus. He pointed at it. “Man, that thing does not know when to give up.” Then he crossed his arms. “I’m the king of demons, and chasing whatever-that-is is totally beneath my dignity. I don’t know what came over me.”

Amity looked at the diminutive demon with an incensed expression on her face. “That’s Luz’s tiara! You stole it from her room. Give it back!”

King turned and pointed a claw at her. “I’ll have you know, she gave this to me! It’s mine!”

“Amity, it’s okay.” Luz scooped King up and cradled him. “I gave it to him. He loves crowns.” She addressed King, “Don’t you? Huh, buddy?” She waggled him like a ragdoll for Amity to see. “And doesn’t he look like such a sweetie?”

“Ugh!” Amity pursed her lips in anger at Luz. “You know, I keep mine safe in a box. I don’t let household pets chew on it!”

Luz was taken aback by her friend’s sudden anger and looked at her in shock. King jumped out of her arms. “Hey, I don’t chew on it...much.”

Amity stormed towards the door in a dramatic rage. “I guess Grom just didn’t mean that much to you, Luz!” Hooty heard her coming his way and fearfully opened the front door. She stomped outside and didn’t return.

Luz sighed forlornly. “I just don’t understand her sometimes. Why does it bother her? It’s my tiara. She has her own.”

Willow stood and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder comfortingly. “Luz, Amity keeps mementos of things that are special to her. When we were little kids, we went to a carnival. She wanted a stuffie from the prize tent. She spent the whole day collecting tickets from the games. 

“When it came time for the carnival to close, she didn’t have nearly enough and started to cry. So I gave her my tickets. Edric and Emira did too. And she ended up with just enough to get it. She kept that stuffie for years to remind her how nice everyone was to her that day. She probably still has it. That’s just how Amity is. She invests the meaningfulness of events into keepsakes. Grom must have meant a lot to her to get this upset about it.”

 _I didn’t know Grom was so special to you, Amity. I’m sorry._ Luz sniffled. “Grom was great for me too. Well, and kind of scary. I don’t need to keep the tiara to remember it though.”

Willow squeezed her shoulder softly. “That’s just what Amity does. It will be okay. Friends don’t need to agree on everything to be friends.” She glanced at Gus again pointedly.

Luz turned and looked into Willow’s green eyes. “I feel bad though. I want to do something to make her feel better.” She considered it for a moment. Rescuing and taking care of Eda had taken up so much of her focus lately, she hadn’t had time to think much about how Amity had been doing with her injured leg. _I know!_ “She said she’s been cooped up inside for the past few weeks. We should take her someplace nice. What was that lake you guys went to as kids?” She referred to the one she had visited in Willow’s memories.

“Lake Lacuna.” Willow’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

Luz smiled as the plan came together in her mind. “Why don’t we go there tomorrow? I’ll apologize to Amity about the crown thing and get her to come too. We can rehearse our lines there. You, Gus, and King can hang out on the beach. Then we can have a picnic. We’ll all have fun and find nice souvenirs to take home so we can remember it!”

Gus smiled hopefully and pocketed the tennis ball as he sat back down to do his homework. “Beach party? I’m in, baby!”

“I guess. It’s kind of a long walk from town without flying on staves or a boat though.” Willow wasn’t totally convinced it was the best idea. “What if something bad happens?”

Luz shrugged it off. “Oh, what’s the worst that can happen? We’ve got all us powerful witches to look after each other. And King too.”

“Yeah, me too!” King growled. “I’m the fiercest! Nyah!” He punched the air with his tiny fist.

Willow conceded. “I guess it will be okay. It does sound nice to get away from it all for a while.”

Next week:

Chapter 4: Life's a Beach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Forbearance Betrayed is about 40% Tristan and Isolde. Meurig is Tristan, Prince Cadogan is Isolde, and Briellen is Mark. The plot has been trimmed down and rearranged a bit.


	4. Life's a Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teens and King go to Lake Lacuna where Amity and Luz can rehearse their lines and Luz can find a souvenir for her.

Chapter 4

Life’s a Beach

Several hours after Amity left the Owl House, Luz had gone to look for her, hoping her temper would cool off after a while. Luz suspected the green-haired witch would be sulking in her hidden room in the public library, and her suspicions proved correct. Luz apologized for giving her tiara to King, although she still didn’t quite understand why her own tiara was important to her friend. She kept that part to herself. Amity had apologized in turn for stomping off and ruining the chance to rehearse their dialogue. She turned a peculiar shade of pink, her eyes glazing over, when Luz suggested rehearsing on the beach at Lake Lacuna instead. Luz was surprised how readily Amity agreed to the idea. And so, the next day they set off on foot to the lake.

Gus and Willow led the way down the well-worn trail through the forest to the lake. Amity followed cautiously, taking care to follow the healing witch’s advice and minded her freshly healed leg, with her abomination carrying everyone’s bag. And Luz brought up the rear of the procession with King and contemplated Amity and her reaction to Luz’s tiara,  _ But I still don’t quite get why Grom was so important to her. She didn’t even get to go with the person she wanted to. There must be some kind of personal biz I don’t know about. All the more reason to crack the case on her Grom-posal note! _

Gus wore a billowing bathing costume that covered him from his knees to his neck with wide, red and white vertical stripes. The style was a full century out of date by the sartorial standards of Luz’s human realm, not that she concerned herself with such things. Willow’s swimsuit was a one-piece green and gray number with ruffles around her hips and shoulders. However, she wore a loose white t-shirt over it and a broad-brimmed straw sunhat. 

Amity wore a pink and black tankini with a built-in skirt, but she too chose to cover it with her favorite black tunic. She also wore a sunhat like Willow, but made of white canvas, to protect her face. It was decorated with a pink band and a sparkling, color-matched crystal centered on the front. Luz wore a purple and white one-piece suit with a pair of athletic shorts, a t-shirt tied up around her waist, and a pair of black sunglasses. King wore his collar and tag as usual, but nothing else, especially not a tiara, per Luz’s specific request. The abomination wore nothing, of course.

It was a bright, sunny day and the lake was a popular weekend recreational destination for families from Bonesborough. There were many people present when they arrived, but not enough to make it uncomfortably crowded. Most of the people had arrived in personal flying boats, which were arranged in neat rows in a grassy meadow inland of Lake Lacuna’s beach that served as a parking lot.

The teen witches staked out a pretty spot with plenty of space on the sand near the edge of the lake. The water lapped timidly against the shore under a gentle breeze that slowly rolled orange-tinted puffs of cloud across the purpled sky. No boats traversed the lake to blemish a perfect view of crimson trees on the far-distant strand. The Titan’s will itself seemed to fall in line with Luz’s plans for a memorable day.

Willow fetched her beach bag from the abomination and pulled out a shovel and bucket to build a castle of damp sand, a personal custom dating to her childhood. She expertly tamped on crenulated ramparts and round towers with her hands and placed tiny twig flagstaffs in the tops of them as Amity stopped to watch her wistfully.

Gus plopped down next to Willow and contributed to the ever-expanding sand castle, sharing the bucket and shovel back and forth with her. He also produced Eda’s tennis ball from a pocket in his bathing costume. He had no need to scry the weather on it. Instead he threw it into the cool water. King protested this as demeaning treatment, but chased it with compulsive vigor again and again. Each time he returned and dropped it by Gus’s hand, shaking the lake water out of his fur. Gus would pick up the ball and send it out to float in the lake again to King’s exasperation.

Luz retrieved her own pink, violet, and blue beach bag from Amity’s personal porter. In it she had stashed her glyph cards, both premade and blank, and a pen, as well as a broad towel, the old book Amity had gifted her, now nearly read through, and a copy of the play’s script, which she extracted. She pulled off her shoes and put them in the bag. Her hand lingered on the book momentarily. The bottom portion of Amity’s Grom note was still where she had stashed it inside the back cover.  _ I wonder if I can ask Amity some questions without making her suspicious.  _ Then she wandered down to the edge of the water.

Amity returned from wandering through memories of beach days past and found her own copy of the script. She followed Luz to the narrow band where the water rolled over the sand and filled their footprints with mirrors of the purple and orange sky. “Okay, Meurig. This is scene two. We’re on the flying boat, travelling to Queen Briellen’s castle. You’re secretly in love with me…” Her cheeks pinked and she quickly amended herself, “Uh, Prince Cadogan. I’m sulking over being treated as a token exchanged in a peace treaty between my father and your liege-lady and taking my frustrations out on you.”

Luz glanced at her script and turned to face Amity. She mimicked pushing aside a curtain and stepping into a ship’s cabin, then performed a sweeping bow. “Demand, oh Prince, what you wish of me.”

“Do you not know my will, knight?” Amity said forcefully and stomped her foot in the sand. “For you seem to avoid me, and by extension, what would fain me.”

Luz clutched her fist to her chest. She turned and looked away, out over the lake. “Respect kept me away.”

“Scant honor you’ve shown me, whom you should be attending. Why do you not obey whence summoned?” Amity’s brow was furrowed and her voice derisive.

The human girl bowed her head solemnly. “Obedience alone held me in check, my prince.”

“Then small are my thanks,” —Amity sneered at her— “to your lady…if...if… Argh! Titan’s fist!” She looked down at her script. “Okay let’s start the scene again. I messed up my line.”

“Okay, starting again.” Luz sighed and took a few steps back in the sloshing sand, then made to open the imaginary curtain again. She bowed deeply. “Demand, oh Prince, what you would of me.”

Luz and Amity rehearsed the scene again and again, in addition to others as gentle waves splashed over their feet. Willow, Gus, or King would look on from time to time and critique their deliveries until they all grew bored and hungry and opened the picnic basket, preparing plates of PB&J sandwiches. They spread a blanket higher on the beach and sat to eat their food. It was Luz’s go-to nourishment in the Boiling Isles, where much of the culinary fare was unappetizing by her human tastes.

King gobbled his up quickly, then was lulled to drowsiness by the contentment of a full stomach and the warm sun, not to mention exhaustion from chasing the ‘infernal’ tennis ball. He turned a circle in the middle of the blanket, and curled up for an afternoon nap, absorbing the sun’s rays with his dark fur.

Luz pushed her hand into the beach’s surface as she chewed her food and held it up. Tiny particles of grit covered her skin. “Hey, look. I’m a sandy witch eating my sandy-wich!” She grinned roguishly.

Willow and Gus gave a polite laugh, but Amity giggled noticeably longer; just enough to look foolish. “Oh, oops.” The others looked at her and she blushed. “What? It was a good joke.”

Willow and Gus exchanged knowing glances. “So have you guys practiced the kissing scenes yet?” asked Gus slyly.

“Don’t be insensitive!” Willow backhanded him lightly in the shoulder.

Luz swallowed her mouthful of sandwich and rolled her eyes. “We haven’t got to them yet. We’ve tried just about every other scene and each time, one of us messes it up.” She smiled teasingly at her castmate. “Maybe I should be the one picking which scenes we rehearse, huh?”

Amity’s face flushed again as she protested, “It hasn’t been that bad! We did the scene where Queen Briellen figures out that we’re secretly in lo—lo—l...that Cadogan and Meurig are secretly in love with each other at the wedding feast perfectly. We’ll get to the kissing scenes soon. I promise!” She gulped.

“Yeah, the feast scene did go well,” Luz said thoughtfully. “And the one before that where you stop Briellen’s sneak attack by agreeing to abide the treaty and marry her.” 

Amity nodded in agreement as she chewed a bite.

Luz grinned at her. “My favorite is the scene where we fight Briellen’s poison assassins!” She swung an imaginary sword at an invisible foe then faked getting stabbed in the heart and flopped over onto the blanket.

“That’s the one where Cadogan finally confesses his love to Meurig, right?” Willow asked nonchalantly, although she glanced at Amity.

Amity grimaced nervously. “Yeah, I’m still having some trouble getting some of my lines right in that one.”

Luz easily leaped to her feet despite having a belly full of peanut butter and jelly and began walking down to the section of beach at the edge of the water that had been their impromptu stage. “Come on! We need to at least try the scene where Cadogan heals Meurig’s injuries from the crash,” she said to Amity over her shoulder.

“Heals them with a kiss!” Gus added, only to get smacked in the arm again by Willow.

Amity’s face blanched. “O—o—okay!” She got up and followed Luz.

_ I still need to find something nice for Amity.  _ Luz looked down in the sand as she got close to the water and saw a flash of rosy pink. A large, flat scalloped shell laid partially buried.  _ Hey, that would be perfect for her! _ She cleared the sand away from it with her toes. She scooped it up and dried it off on her swimsuit. “Hey Amity, look at this shell. You can keep it to remember how fun today has been!” Amity caught up with her and Luz put it in her hands. Luz spotted something else and splashed into the shallow water excitably. “Hey, there’s another one!”

Amity frowned at the shell Luz gave her as she turned it in her hands. “Um, Luz. This is a shell from a water abomination. We should probably leave these alone. The wild magic of the Isles spontaneously summons them sometimes. They’re pretty nasty.”

Luz ignored her and attempted to pick up the second pink shell. “Whoa. That’s weird. It’s stuck.” She dug her fingertips into the sloshy sand underneath it as the shallow lakewater swirled around her legs. The clayish sediment she disturbed under the sand hung in the water and obscured the bottom of the lake.

“Luz, no!” Perhaps it was a genetic echo of her mother’s natural aptitude for Oracular magic; Amity intuited what was about to happen a split second before a geyser erupted in Luz’s face.

“G’aaahh!” Luz was blown back up onto the beach by the blast, flattening the central part of the sand castle Willow and Gus had made. She sputtered and coughed up water from the unexpected dousing. 

Willow and Gus, who had been lingering by the picnic blanket whispering to each other in terse tones, jumped to their feet as they watched the horror unfold before them.

The geyser reached thirty feet in the air and the water seemed to stay there instead of falling back, drawing up from the muddy, sandy depths and mounding into a crudely bipedal shape that slowly extended down towards the surface. Within its turbulent body, water, sediment, and soggy debris constantly swirled. Sharp pieces of driftwood, whole trees in some cases, were dragged out of the lake by the force of wild magic and formed up on its back, shoulders, and the crown of what passed for its head. The pink shell Luz had tried to pry from the bottom of the lake held steady in the middle of its chest. The expression on its crude face was that of primal rage.

The families enjoying a day on the beach, innocent bystanders all, screamed and fled as the wild abomination let out a visceral, malevolent bellow that shook the trees all around the lake. They clambered into flying boats or escaped on the path through the forest back to Bonesborough, abandoning their umbrellas, towels, and other assorted paraphernalia. The beach lay empty within minutes.

Luz tried to regain her footing, but was knocked back down by a blast of water and gravel that the wild abomination flung at her from the end of its arm. It lifted one leg, then another, and began lumbering up the beach towards her, drawing a greater portion of sand into its matrix as it went.

Willow was the first to react. Her eyes lit with green fire as she traced a circle high in the air. She let out an amazonian warcry. Hundreds of tendrils of aquatic plants stretched from the bottom of the lake and entwined themselves around and even within the legs of the abomination. Each one was individually fragile, depending on buoyancy to support its weight, but en masse they were strong and halted the wild monstrosity in its tracks.

It strained against the frail tethers, but finding it couldn’t move, deduced in its primeval logic center that the dark-haired girl with flashing green eyes was to blame. It roared and summoned a tsunami that built from the depths of the lake and directed it at Willow. Gus quickly circled his finger and a shimmering illusory, blue seawall rose out of the sand and took the brunt of the wave. He struggled to hold the bulwark in place by sheer willpower as millions of gallons of water crashed on it again and again.

Amity raised her best abomination, a sludgy, purple dwarf compared to the wild one. She commanded it to drag Luz back from the monster. It lurched forward and grasped the human girl by the shoulders then began pulling her up the beach to safety.

The wild abomination raised its arms above its jagged crown of driftwood and wailed loudly, causing an involuntary shiver to run down Luz’s spine. The puffy orange cotton-ball clouds that played across the sky all day suddenly grew ominous and dark. They drew together and formed into a spinning gyre that spanned beyond the bounds of Lake Lacuna, even as lightning began to flash. A bitterly cold rain fell and the high winds blew the fat, splatting drops sideways.

The rain was what finally woke King from his after-lunch nap. He took one look at the fight in progress so near him. “What in Titan’s name is going on!?” Luz was laying on her back in front of a huge monster made of water, sand, and mud. High waves washed up the beach and crashed against a magical barrier, swamping Luz and Amity’s servant with each deluge. 

King cast about in panic and lunged for the first thing he could find to use as a weapon, the tennis ball Gus had casually left on the blanket next to him. He ran forward, climbing onto Gus’s protective barrier, and threw it as hard as he could at the aggressive monstrosity. “Nyah!” The rubber ball flew through the air, only to get caught up by the crosswinds and carried along the beach before it could even get close to hitting the water abomination. He watched it go and tried to resist the allure of the bounding ball. “Oh, this is so demeaning!” he complained as he gave chase to it, trundling along on his short legs. In the span of a few seconds he disappeared into the dense rain.

Luz pulled herself free of Amity’s summoned servant and scrambled for her multi-colored beach bag, still laying on the blanket. She opened it and rifled through her belongings, looking for a pre-drawn glyph card.  _ Fire. Plants. Light...Here it is!  _ She found the one she wanted and pulled it out, rain splattering on the paper. “I got this, you guys!” She turned and ran back towards the wild abomination. She climbed up that back face of Gus’s illusory revetment and leaped towards the pink shell at the center of the infernal creature’s chest with the glyph held out before her.

The end of one of the water abomination’s arms formed into a hand and reached out, deftly catching her in mid-air. The hand was so huge that she was only a head and upper torso above its thumb while just her feet stuck out the other end by its littlest finger. It clenched its fist and squeezed her, hard. Driftwood swirled in from other areas of its being down to the end of its arm and formed a ragged cage around Luz, pushing in on her from all directions. She screamed as absolute pain radiated from all over her body.

Amity heard Luz’s scream. “Luz, no! Abomination, attack!” Her servant trudged forward. It wasn’t much, a David to the larger abomination’s Goliath, but Amity threw it into the fray anyway. The purple abomination laid assault to its counterpart’s shin with globby fists to little effect. The water abomination’s leg quickly reformed after each blow.

With her last breath squeezed out of her, Luz slapped the glyph card onto the water abomination’s hand at the juncture of its thumb and first index knuckle. The card activated, spreading dendrites of ice through the monster’s watery fingers and up its arm. In a matter of moments it froze solid down to its legs.  _ Oh, no! _ Luz tried to wiggle out of the flailing monster’s grasp, but she was trapped inside its frozen hand, with sharp bits of wood constricting her ribcage like a python. Even as it died, the storm it summoned continued raging overhead, flinging lightning dangerously close to the desperate teens.

The smaller purple abomination smashed its fists into the icy legs with even greater focus as Amity threw all her fury into it. Cracks propagated across the giant’s surface and finally it shattered. The body toppled to the beach. The frozen fist hit the sand, rolled into the water with Luz inside, and crumbled apart.

Luz laid in Lake Lacuna’s frothy shallow waters, surrounded by broken fragments of driftwood and blocks of dirty ice. Amity, Gus, and Willow raced to her and dragged her onto the relatively dry sand. She was soaked to the bone and tinted blue. Amity called her name, but she didn’t respond. She involuntarily coughed up water. It was laced with phlegm and blood. She started breathing, but it was shallow and labored. Lurid bruises were already forming across her legs.

King appeared out of nowhere, having lost the ball somewhere farther along the beach. “Oh, no! Luz! Eda’s gonna kill us.”

The storm continued raging around them, oblivious to the desperate tragedy unfolding on the beach of Lake Lacuna. “We need to get her someplace safe!” Gus said.

Willow and Amity looked at each other. “The cave!” they yelled in unison.

Next week:

Chapter 5: Whispers in the Firelight


	5. Whispers in the Firelight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the fight, Amity tends to Luz as the others go for help.

Chapter 5 

Whispers in the Firelight

Amity commanded her abomination to pick the unconscious girl up. Under her focused control it lifted Luz with utmost gentleness. It followed her past the bounds of the beach toward an outcropping of rust-red rock she knew to be a little farther around the shore of the lake. In the blowing rain, its dark shape seemed to loom out of nowhere above them. 

They worked quickly without much talk. Willow, Gus, and King wrapped up the picnic blanket, collected their belongings that hadn’t blown away, and went after them. King took special care to zip Luz’s pink, violet, and blue beach bag up, and carried it himself, despite it being large enough to contain him.

Amity and Willow found the cave they remembered. It was a place they had explored as little girls, when they were still best friends; before Amity’s parents forced them apart. They worked together despite the lingering void between them, out of desperation for their mutual friend. The entrance was low and narrow compared to how they remembered it as kids and concerningly close to the storm-tossed lake’s edge, but it would have to do. They ducked down to go inside. The entrance opened into a small chamber, just big enough for the group of them, a little deeper than it was wide, with a passageway that led from the back into darkness.

Willow folded the picnic blanket into a rectangle. It was wet and not very warm, but more comfortable than laying on the dirt floor of the cave. The abomination was too big to enter, so Willow took Luz from its arms and laid her on the blanket carefully. King set her beach bag nearby. The contents were damp, but intact, despite being left open at the beginning of the storm.

Willow, Amity, Gus, and King huddled in a circle, just inside the cave entrance. Consensus was quickly reached. Willow suggested the plan and Gus nodded along with a knowing look. Amity would stay and look after Luz while the other three returned to Bonesborough to get the first healing witch they could find and guide them back to the cave.

Willow and Gus left behind their belongings and the picnic basket inside the entrance of the cave, not wishing to be slowed down, and departed with King immediately. No moment was wasted on sentimental goodbyes; they pushed back into the storm and began the long hike to town. Every second was crucial to their success.

The forest encroached closer to the water there by the cave in the outcropping of rock, than by the beach, and the first thing Amity did was locate a fallen tree. She commanded her servant to drag it back to the cave entrance. That completed, it broke off branches and limbs by brute strength and, forming an arm into a sharp wedge, began chopping at the trunk until there was a stack of splintered cords.

Amity carried an armload of the wood into the narrow cave’s entrance and arranged it into a cone near Luz’s unconscious form with the smallest pieces on the inside. The wood was wet from the rain, but she was persistent and desperate, casting fire spell after fire spell into the stack until it could sustain combustion. It finally crackled into its own and Amity took a deep breath, drawing warmth and hope from the modest flames. The smoke pooled near the low ceiling, then trickled towards the back where the cave rose in elevation and disappeared into the darkness beyond. Amity and Willow had explored further into the cave as children. She knew it ran uphill through the rock outcropping and under the forest beyond. She suspected there was another opening back there somewhere, although she had never discovered it.

She turned and looked at the unconscious girl on the blanket. Luz’s short, dark brown hair was matted and wet, all messy and splayed across her forehead. In the flickering light from the fire, she could almost imagine pointed ears on Luz, as if she were a regular witch. Amity considered what her life would be like if she had known Luz for years instead of just a month or so; if Luz had the capacity to perform magic in the way all other witches do. _But then she wouldn’t be her, and I like who she is. So brave. So stupid. She just leaped straight at that thing, despite the danger._

Amity crawled over and knelt beside her. With what she considered great temerity, she brushed Luz’s hair away from her face with her fingertips. The inadvertent change in the girl’s appearance affected Amity immediately. Her hair was now swept back, similar to the way it had been styled at Grom. A pit of regret grew in Amity’s stomach. _Why was I so angry? She invited me to the beach to make up for giving away her tiara. It’s not her fault she doesn’t care about it like I do._ Now instead of a coat and tails and a tutu, Luz was wearing a swimsuit and a sodden, dirty t-shirt and shorts, laying in a cave, barely breathing.

Amity’s regret over Luz’s crown reminded her of the conversation they had before she had blown up about it and stormed off. The play. The book. Cadogan’s healing kiss. Amity actually knew the lines from that scene by heart. She had been agonizing over it and the final kissing scene since she learned Luz would be playing Meurig.

Amity leaned over Luz like Cadogan leaned over Meurig and recited his words from heart, “O knight. O knight. O shining wonder I should despise. You won your queen a realm at the expense of my father and secured for her myself as paramour so that upon my father’s near demise, two lands will be hers instead of one. I should hate you for it and would have preferred us both drowned in that sea which boils. But you toiled to preserve me from that fate at the expense of your own.

“I looked into your face as you drew me from that hot gate of death, expecting to see only motives of duty and fealty for your wretched queen, my would-be wife, but lo I did espy more, I think. A cause yet grander still for your mercy. A light shone from you of that rare thing, true love, and what more, I felt it kindled within me at that very moment. And in its birth, that love immediately knew sorrow, for you dashed away your own life to preserve me. 

“As it is, I know rare arts that my dear mother, a keen witch, invested in my mind. I thought to hide them away, but now I bestow upon you, fading son of war, a restoring elixir from my own lips to yours. A kiss of life.” A tear rolled down her cheek as she recited the monologue perfectly.

Amity looked into Luz’s face, inches from her own. The human’s eyes remain shut, her breath shallow, mouth open just enough for a glimpse of pearly enamel. _Luz thought magic kisses might be real. Her glyph magic is just as crazy. Perhaps…_ She leaned in closer and felt Luz’s faint, warm breath on her own lips.

The witch squeezed her eyes tight and slowly closed the space between their lips, only for her resolve to flag; she turned her head ever so slightly to the left. Amity felt her lips brush against Luz’s soft cheek, then pulled away with a gasp. _What am I doing!?_

She settled against the cave wall and buried her face in her hands, convulsing in hearty sobs, overwhelmed with remorse for what she had almost done. _If we’re ever going to be...something, I don’t want this to be our first kiss without her knowing and agreeing to it. It feels so wrong._ The wind whistled across the cave’s opening mournfully and the fire’s flame guttered.

She heard a cough and looked up, suddenly still and tense. _Is someone here? Did they see?_ No one stood in the opening of the cave and nothing appeared in the dark passageway at the back where the smoke from the fire meandered away like an upside down brook.

She heard it again; it came from the prone form by the fire. _Luz!_ Her pulse quickened. She rushed back to her injured friend. A dollop of pink-tinged saliva dribbled from the corner of the human’s mouth. Amity took the sleeve of her tunic, her favorite one, and wiped it away.

Luz’s eyes fluttered and opened halfway. She focused on the unfamiliar ceiling and scanned its surface. “Where am I?” she mumbled weakly.

“Luz!” Amity blurted out, almost laughing for joy. The injured girl slowly turned her head to look at her, pain flashing across her face. “You’re safe! We’re in a cave. The others went for help.”

The human groaned. “What happened? Did I get hit by a car?”

“I don’t know what that is,” Amity said, shaking her head. “We fought a water abomination. A big one. You froze it solid with an ice glyph, but it crushed you. We carried you in here. I lit a fire, see!? And then you woke up...for some reason! Isn’t that great!” She laughed nervously.

Luz tried to move and gasped, settling back into the prone position. “I’m not sure I agree about it being great.”

“I’m sorry, Luz. It must hurt terribly.” Amity wanted to reach out to take her hand, but restrained herself.

Luz glanced at her from the corner of her eye. “Do you have my bag with my glyph cards?”

“Yes, I’ll get them.” Amity stood and walked the few paces to where King left the beach bag. She opened it. Most of the contents were moist from the rain. She searched through it, taking note that Luz had brought the old copy of Forbearance Betrayed that she had given her. Beneath it she found the cards, some pre-marked, others blank, and a pen. She carried them over to her.

Luz spoke through her clenched teeth. “There’s a new one with wavy lines. Is it there?”

“I’ll look.” Amity peeled the stack of damp cards apart until she found one that looked like Luz described. It had wavy, ogee lines radiating from the inside of what kind of looked like a body. She held it up above Luz’s face. “Is this it?”

The human nodded painfully. “Don’t use it. Copy it onto another card with the pen.” Amity carefully duplicated the complex design on a blank card and held it up for Luz to check. “Okay, now put it on my left side, under my arm, and activate it.”

Amity blinked. She had never used one of Luz’s glyphs. She wasn’t sure if she even could. “How?”

“Just tap it and imagine what you want to happen. It’s a healing glyph. I just found it the other day,” Luz said painfully.

Amity recalled that Willow had activated one of Luz’s plant glyphs during the grudgby match against Boscha and it gave her confidence that it was at least possible for her to do it. She gingerly slipped the card between Luz’s arm and her side at the edge of her swimsuit. She tapped it and imagined the strange twitchy sensation her leg felt when the healing witches cast spells on it. 

The card crinkled and glowed, turning to dust. There was a searing sound from Luz’s side and she screamed something through her teeth in a language Amity didn’t recognize. Then she relaxed back down onto the blanket. “Thanks. I think...I had a broken rib,” she said feebly, but her breathing already sounded more robust. “Can you make some more?”

Amity copied several additional healing glyphs and handed them to Luz, carefully looking away as the human was slipping some of them inside her swimsuit. The guilt she felt about the almost-kiss resonated inside her. Each time, Luz gasped as the glyph activated. Still, she seemed weak and remained lying on the blanket.

“I need to take a break. It’s making me woozy. Some kind of side effect, maybe. I didn’t actually try these glyphs on anything alive yet,” she said after applying several to herself.

Amity raised her eyebrows in alarm. “And you made me try the first one on you without knowing what would happen!? Luz!”

“First time for everything, right?” she mumbled. “Can I ask you something personal, Ams?”

She was taken aback for a moment at the nickname; perceiving affection but sadly writing it off as a symptom of Luz’s delirium. Hope is self-inflicted cruelty, she reflected. Then her mind engaged again and she remembered it had been preceded by a question. _Personal!?_ She agreed hesitantly, with mixed feelings. This line of question could lead somewhere disastrous.

Luz continued, “Who was your first crush?”

Amity’s eyes grew wide. _Oh, Titan! Not this!_ “You mean, like, a real person or…?”

“Or whatever.”

Her mind whirled. She couldn’t tell Luz the truth; that she was the first object of her interest. “Um, in that case, Malingale the Mysterious, when they first appeared in Azura 2.” She sighed quietly in relief. It wasn’t true, but it was the first thing she could think of.

“Mmm. Good answer. They’re such a dashing rogue.” Luz stared at the ceiling of the cave. “So what about the first real—”

 _Change the subject!_ Amity thought, panicking. “Luz, they said you met Emperor Belos. What was he like?” 

Luz blinked, losing track of the question she was about to ask in her haziness. She frowned as she considered. “Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.”

“They said you begged him for Eda’s life.”

“Well. We...made a trade. Something personal.” Luz sighed and closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet, anyway.”

Amity cringed. _Oops. But very interesting. Another time perhaps._ “So, what about Lilith? I’m kind of glad she’s gone from the Emperor’s Coven.”

“She’s not a bad person, really. She’s just made...mistakes.”

Amity harrumphed aloud at that. She still had hard feelings about the way Lilith tricked her into cheating in the witches’ duel at the covention.

There was a gurgling noise from the entrance of the cave and the girls looked to watch as a runnel of water crept in from outside. A moment later, several more followed. The storm had not abated. If anything, it had intensified, and the lake was surging over the top of its basin as rainwater flooded into it and had nowhere to go. At the rate it was coming into the cave, it would soon extinguish their fire and submerge Luz’s ersatz rest bed.

“Okay, I think it’s not safe here anymore,” Amity said fearfully as she assessed the invading element. “Can you get up?”

Luz twisted and tried to get her feet beneath her, then fell back onto the blanket, keening softly. “I don’t think so. Something still hurts.”

Amity hurriedly grabbed Luz’s pen. “I’ll make you another glyph.” She picked up a blank card and copied the healing design again. She tried to hand it to Luz.

The human shook her head. “I can’t reach it. It’s on my back. You’ll have to do it.” She rolled onto her side.

The green-haired witch gulped and pulled the back of Luz's shirt up. She could see the flared purple boundary of a massive contusion under the top edge of Luz’s swimsuit and a misshapen bulge under the fabric. There was a dark stain there as well. She carefully pulled the stretchy material away from Luz’s skin.

Under different circumstances, she would have appreciated the opportunity to see her crush’s lithe, yet muscular physique so closely. But the presence of the ugly purple blotch and pulsing, red laceration ruined any sense of attraction she might have felt at the moment. 

She slipped her hand inside and placed the card over the torn flesh. She tapped it, eliciting a painful whimper from Luz, and imagined seeing it fully healed. It didn’t work quite that well. Luz hissed through clenched teeth. The paper disintegrated and the cut closed, but much of the massive bruise remained. She let the swimsuit fall back in place and gently lowered the hem of Luz’s shirt. “Can you move now?”

“I can try,” Luz said, blinking tears from her eyes. She held out one of her hands. Amity grabbed it with both of hers and pulled as Luz pushed off the ground with the other. She came upright too quickly, then stumbled into Amity, who supported her. “Okay, I can go, if you help.”

 _Oh, my Titan!_ The close contact of their bodies exhilarated Amity despite the desperate situation, and she felt a rush of blood to her cheeks. But she fought for control of herself and pushed it from her mind. She slung Luz’s arm over her shoulder and wrapped her own arm around the taller girl’s waist, being careful of the wound on her back. It was time to go.

Next Week 

Chapter 6: The Underworld


	6. The Underworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity helps Luz escape from the flooding caverns and discovers a surprise.

Chapter 6 

The Underworld

Amity guided Luz on a first wobbly step to the cavern’s entrance and stopped. The water there was knee deep already and swirling darkly. Beyond the entrance was unknowable but certainly worse. Between that and making Luz duck to get outside, she knew it was too late to go out that way. “We will have to go farther into the cave. It goes uphill away from the water.”

Luz didn’t argue, instead she gave a feeble ‘okay’ and clung to her friend. _Oh Titan!_ Amity felt deeply self-conscious with Luz’s arm wrapped around her shoulders. She was thrilled and in agony all at once and struggled not to show it.

She traced her finger in a circle and created a small, pink flame that hovered above her hand, giving them a modicum of light to walk by. She pivoted Luz around carefully and they took steps together, counting them as they went. 

Gradually, they left the sound of flowing water behind them and the walls of the cave changed from normal rock to something more surreal. Millennia of drips of water had picked up minerals from the surrounding stone and left them all over the cave in undulating deposits, as if the walls themselves were flowing cataracts frozen in time. It glistered with an unreal sheen in the light of Amity’s pink flame. Stalagmites reached up from the floor towards stalactites clinging to the ceiling. 

They followed the channel of smoke from the fire that seemed to lead ever upward. It was slow going. The floor of the passageway was uneven; the few visitors the cave regularly received hadn’t been enough to wear it smooth. _This place is still wild,_ Amity thought to herself. _Like the water abomination._ Between the rough ground, a lack of footwear, which had been abandoned at the beach, and supporting Luz, Amity’s recently mended leg began to throb. She grimaced against the pain that shot up her shin with each step. _We can’t stop now. She carried me when I was hurt. Now it’s my turn; I’ve got to get her out of here. My leg can always get healed again when we get out._ Two hundred and seventeen steps in, they came to a ledge that rose to their waists and blocked their path. “This is the farthest Willow and I explored in here as kids.”

“I can’t climb up that,” said Luz wearily. 

Amity eyed her with concern. The human wasn’t complaining about any hurts, but the strain in her voice was telling. “It’s okay. I knew it was here and I’ve been thinking about it since we started walking.” She let go of Luz so that the human could rest against the face of the ledge, then she gathered her concentration and formed a circle with her right hand, the one not holding the flame. An abomination arm erupted from the cave wall above the ledge. The space was tight and it barely fit.

The abomination gently grabbed the human around the waist and swung her up and over the ledge before letting her down again gently. It took immense focus for Amity to lift Luz with the due care required while also maintaining the pink flame so she could see. The unsubsiding pain in her leg also didn’t help. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead as she worked. 

For her part, Luz looked ashen, perhaps some traumatic memory of being squeezed in the water abomination’s fist had come back to her. But Amity’s control was perfect and Luz was harmed no more than she had been before she was transported to the top of the ledge. Amity released the abomination from her control and pulled herself up onto the ledge. She paused on the higher level next to Luz to catch her breath and kneaded her calf tenderly.

After a moment Luz groaned in regret. “You’re not going to believe this. I need my beach bag.” They had abandoned it with the blanket, the picnic basket, and the other teens’ bags back by the fire.

“You can make more glyph cards when you get back to the Owl House, Luz,” Amity gently chided her.

“It’s not that. It’s the book.”

 _The book I gave her?_ Amity raised an eyebrow. “Luz, the book isn’t important. You can get it from the library or buy it. It’s always in print.”

“It’s not the story, it’s that book. I need it!” Luz said forcefully, despite her condition. Her voice echoed in the cavern. “It’s a gift...from you. I wanted to keep it.” Her tone was pleading.

Amity couldn’t say ‘no’ to that. It was as if Luz knew exactly how to persuade her. Without a word, she slid back down the ledge with the pink flame in her hand and set off back toward the cave’s entrance, limping along and leaving Luz alone in the dark. The water reached her ankles before she even made it halfway to the entrance. _Well, the fire’s surely out now,_ she thought sardonically as she splashed through it.

In a few more minutes, the muddy water was to her waist. As she got closer, it became more efficient to swim than to wade. The current in the cave was strange, tossing her this way, then that, with unexpected eddies that dragged her in circles. She held her hand with the pink flame above the water as she went. The ceiling and the surface of the water grew closer together, threatening to douse it and plunge her into darkness.

She finally reached the place where she had made the fire. The cave’s opening to the outside was fully submerged. There was only a foot’s breadth of air above the water in the chamber and the flame in her hand flickered against the ceiling. Fortunately, the teen’s beach bags were floating together at the surface. Amity treaded water to maintain buoyancy. She reached into the bunch and found Luz’s multi-colored bag among the others. She bit the fabric with her teeth and pulled the zipper open with the hand that wasn’t holding the pink flame. Inside was the old, tattered copy of Forbearance Betrayed. She found Luz’s glyph cards too, but they were ruined beyond use. _I never put the pen back anyway,_ Amity thought with disappointment. She had hoped that maybe she could activate a healing glyph on her own leg. Instead she took only the book and swam back in the direction she had walked with Luz not long before, leaving everything else behind.

When the water was shallow enough for her to stand again, she examined the book for damage. It was completely waterlogged and rightly should have been disposed of, in her opinion. But with care, the tome could be redeemed. She made a mental note to enlist her friends at the library to help with that. As she looked it over, she noticed a bit of pink peeking out from under the back cover. She tugged on it and a slip of paper came out. Amity blinked at it in shock. It was the bottom half of her Grom-posal note, still quite legible despite the water damage. _Unbelievable. Did she only want me to save the book because of this!?_ Amity realized this was also the piece of pink paper she had seen Luz slip into her yellow satchel at the library. _She told me it was litter. She lied to me!_

Amity couldn’t comprehend a possible reason for Luz to want to keep it, but since her siblings divulged that an illusion spell could still reveal the entire message, she tucked it into her tankini top for safe keeping. _I’m definitely not letting her have this back._

She trudged back through the cave’s passage to the ledge where Luz waited, quite a bit more circumspect than before. _Why would she do that? She brought our escape to a screeching halt and made me risk my life to get the stupid note._ She felt manipulated, and by none other than her own crush.

Luz was still resting against the wall above the ledge and looked down at her as she approached, eyes hopeful. “Did you find it? Was it hard to get?”

Amity set the book on the ledge, then pulled herself up to Luz’s level and handed it to her, watching the human carefully. “Yep. Here’s your book,” she said coldly.

“Ugh, it’s soaked. Still a keeper though.” Luz smiled in gratitude.

They went through the process of getting the taller girl back up on her feet and facing the correct direction again. Amity felt no secret exhilaration about being so physically close to Luz this time. Even so, she treated her friend and her betrayer, one in the same, delicately. She could be mean, but she didn’t like to be.

Amity watched Luz closely as they went. The human girl kept glancing at the book in her hand. _She’s wondering if the note is still in it, but she doesn’t want to check in front of me._ The realization made her stomach sour. They limped slowly up the passageway together, guided by Amity’s flame. The path gradually steepened and the flowy, glistery stone turned back into normal-looking rock. They were getting close to the surface.

“Look!” exclaimed Luz with more energy than she’d shown since waking up in the cave. “There’s a light ahead.”

Amity let her magic light flicker out with relief; it had been a trial for her to maintain the spell for so long, all the while hurting, distracted, and doing most of the work. Luz was correct. There was a small patch of daylight farther up the tunnel at the end of an incline formed by fallen rubble. They slowly hobbled toward it. Through the hole Amity could see red-leafed trees and the purplish sky. “I think the storm is gone.”

The problem was, the hole was only big enough for a person to lay down and wriggle through on their belly. Luz was in no condition for that.

 _I could really use that Construction Coven strength patch right now, Mistress Lilith_ , Amity thought derisively to herself. She looked at Luz. “Can you wait here while I go look around?”

The human considered it for a moment. “I guess. But couldn’t you use your big ab-arm-ination thingy to dig the hole out more? We’ve got these tractors in my world with big arms that dig holes.” She awkwardly imitated an excavator scooping up dirt until a twinge of pain made her gasp. 

Amity arched an eyebrow at the spot of daylight and considered it. She didn’t know what a tractor was, but it sounded like it might work, given the way Luz had mimicked it. That was one of the human’s best skills, Amity reflected, providing new ideas from an alternate perspective. 

She heard Luz sigh and glanced at her. The human girl seemed unexpectedly crestfallen considering how close they were to getting out. _Is something wrong in her world?_ Amity’s bitterness eased a little out of concern. “Okay, you wait in here. I’ll go out there and make the hole bigger like you said, with an abomination.” She carefully let Luz lean against the side of the passage, far enough from the hole so that she would be unlikely to be struck by falling rocks. It wouldn’t do for her to get hurt badly that close to the end. Amity turned and limped to the small patch of sky at the end of the ramp, wriggling inelegantly through the narrow opening and out into the forest.

She blinked and let her eyes adjust. It seemed so open and bright compared to the stygian confines of the cave. It was like a whole different world. The red leaves rippled softly in a mild breeze, dripping water from the passed storm. It was cool and quiet. The hole she had come out seemed so small and innocuous from the outside, just a low jumble of stones. It could be easily mistaken for an animal’s burrow, if it was even noticed at all.

She performed a wide turn, pivoting on her good foot and tracing a circle on the forest floor with her toe. An abomination arm much larger than she had ever done before erupted from the circle and lifted her into the air. She sat astride its elbow and commanded it to bend towards the ground. With her magical control she reformed its blobby hand into a scoop then pushed the tip of it into the ground next to the hole. The scoop curled inwards and lifted a load of dirt laced with tree roots and rocks. The arm picked it up, turned, and released the dirt and rock to the side, then pivoted back for more. Amity repeated the process several more times until she felt the opening was sufficiently large and clear for Luz to walk out of with her help.

She released the abomination and dropped down to the ground. She stumbled for a moment, hissing in pain as her leg reminded her of its injury, then limped into the newly cleared cave. She pushed aside the last few chunks of dirt and rock with her hands so neither of them would trip. She then resumed her place under Luz’s arm, and they emerged from beneath the ground together as if from a grave, feeling victorious.

Amity was surprised to discover that the path they had walked to get to Lake Lacuna that morning was remarkably close to the exit she had just enlarged. _I can’t believe I played in these woods as a little girl and never noticed that hole._

The girls had two options, try to head to town, or return to the lake. But the fact that neither of them were in any condition for the long walk to Bonesborough made it an easy choice. “Let’s head back to the lake. Willow and Gus and your pet demon should be returning with help,” Amity suggested. Luz nodded stiffly.

They limped slowly down the trail, spirits lifted by being out in the fresh air, although Amity still harbored sore feelings. Her heart ached at the thought that Luz had hidden the note from her, and lied about why she wanted the book back. _I bet she’s going to throw it away as soon as she realizes the note is gone,_ she seethed. 

They reached the shore of the lake a while later to discover its water level substantially higher, adding acres to its area. The water was brown and murky from the dirt that had eroded into it from the rain. The edge of the forest on the far side was underwater far enough that it looked like the trees were growing out of the lake itself. The dock where Amity had taken swimming lessons as a child was nowhere to be seen. She assumed it was still there, somewhere under the waves. Almost the whole beach was inundated and the water lapped at the edge of the meadow where flying boats had been parked. She looked across to the rock outcropping where they had entered the cave, the water there was high above the entrance and would have been well over their heads if they had remained. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she remarked in awe.

Luz just stared at it in grim shock.

The meadow was devoid of people or flying boats. Willow, Gus, and King had not returned yet, so the girls sat down on a bench and looked out over Lake Lacuna. Amity took a deep breath. _I may as well get this over with and find out what in Titan’s name she was doing with my note._ “Luz, I want to ask you something and I want you to be honest with me.”

“Okay.” Luz looked at her, trepidation on her face.

 _She’s wondering if I found her little secret. She probably looked in the book while I was digging out the hole,_ Amity thought spitefully and her expression became stoney. She pulled the note from her tankini top, causing Luz to blink in dismay. “Who gave this to you? Why did you have it?” Despite her best efforts, her anger rose and altered the pitch of her voice.

Luz sighed and hung her head. “I found it on the floor outside your hideout. I thought maybe you dropped it. I almost gave it back to you, but...I wanted to find out who you were going to ask to Grom.”

Amity felt a chill run down her spine as she processed Luz’s words. “And did you?”

“No,” Luz admitted dully. “All I wanted was to help you get a date with whoever they are. Because of your fear.”

“That’s all you wanted!? Luz! Do you ever stop meddling in people’s lives?” Amity yelled.

“I’m sorry, Amity. I thought it was what a good friend would do.”

Amity’s tone softened. “I told you before, it’s not important. I had a great time with you, and that’s all that matters.” _But just as friends though, only as friends._ She sighed bitterly to herself.

“You could have had a better time with them, I think.” Luz gave her a lopsided, slightly suggestive smile that seemed out of place on her exhausted face.

The witch shook her head. “No. No, I couldn’t have. Not better.” She folded the note and put it back inside her swimsuit top.

Neither one had anything else to say. Luz was worn out and Amity was full of pique, with the human and herself. They sat in awkward silence, watching the cool breeze play over the lake, until they heard a flapping sound behind them. It was a flying boat, an expensive, custom craft that Amity recognized right away, and it darkened her mood even further. It had deeply stained wood and shiny gold fittings with a tasteful white awning overhead to shade the occupants from the sun or protect them from rain. The seats underneath were cushioned with crushed yellow velvet. It came in low over the forest and alighted in the meadow near the bench they sat on. The boat’s dragon head blinked at them curiously as the gangplank was extended to the ground.

King trotted down the ramp, followed by Willow and Gus. “Luz, You’re alright! Eda’s not going to kill us now!”

Willow glanced apprehensively at the flooded lake. “Wow. Things really got messed up here. How did you two get out?”

“I was almost a goner. Luckily, I had Amity to look out for me. She’s been a great friend!” Luz nodded to her rescuer. “She found a way out the back of the cave.”

Amity sighed, garnering a sympathetic look from Willow. Now that it was over, she wanted to go home, collapse on her bed, and forget all about it.

A male witch with a big handlebar mustache stepped off the boat. “Mr. Skanderby!” Luz blurted out. She turned to Amity. “He’s my healing track teacher.” Amity knew who he was. She knew all the faculty at Hexside as her parents feted them at the beginning of each term in order to cultivate a favorable relationship for their children. She nodded at the teacher and mumbled a greeting.

He approached the human girl straight away. “Well, stand up. Let’s have a look at you.”

Amity helped Luz stand and released her. She wobbled for a moment, but remained upright. The teacher traced a small circle with his finger. His eyes flashed with dark blue light as he looked Luz up and down. “Hmm yes, I see. You have too many contusions to count, three broken ribs; I see they’ve already been partially healed...It looks like your lung had been punctured but is also healed somewhat. Very impressive. And you still have some inflammation in your lower spinal column. That might explain why you have difficulty standing.” 

He made another circle in the air and Luz gasped in relief. “Mmm,” —she stretched her back— “That’s much better. Thanks, teach.” 

“Don’t thank me yet. You should visit a healing witch a few more times to get those ribs patched up all the way,” said Mr. Skanderby. “I’ve really only applied a short term spell to reduce pain and swelling.”

“We used my healing glyphs on me. It burned like hot needles. What’s that about?” Luz asked.

Skanderby stroked his mustache thoughtfully. “I can’t really say for sure. Perhaps because the healing glyph only knits the flesh together, it doesn’t stop pain? Perhaps it’s just because you’re new to it.”

Luz turned to Amity. “You saved my life back there. Thank you so much. You’re a wonderful friend.” She jump-stepped at the witch girl and pulled her in for a hug.

 _Titan’s mercy!_ Amity was caught by surprise, her face flush. However, her heart hurt at Luz’s words, just as before. _But always just a friend. Despite everything._ Luz released her and she staggered back, hobbling on her bad leg.

“I should have a look at that leg too, young lady,” Skanderby said, appraising her.

Two more people walked down the gangplank, green-haired twins, and Amity’s internal reserve of strength collapsed. She had been wondering in dread when they would make their presence known, and after all that she just didn’t have any willpower to deal with them. 

“We were taking the ole cruiser for a ride—” Emira smirked.

Edric interjected, “You know, cuz Mom and Dad aren’t home yet.” 

“—when we spotted two silly witchlings in swimsuits and a demon running through the market square,” Emira continued.

Edric matched her smirk and leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. “Fortunately for them we were feeling generous and stopped to find out what was wrong. They needed a healing witch and a ride to Lake Lacuna, so we happily obliged them, thinking we might take in the waters while we were here.” He held up a beach bag.

Emira shook her head at the devastated lake. “But you two ruined that for us. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised.” She gave Amity a wide, mischievous grin. “Mittens, it seems you’ve had quite a day with your dear friend, Luz. Have you had a chance to consider our little bargain?”

Amity slumped back onto the bench in defeat. The day’s events left her feeling sapped and she couldn’t bring herself to resist. “I accept your terms, but I’m not doing anything for you until after the play.”

“Fine,” agreed Emira and Edric together, expressions unreadable but less smug than Amity expected.

Skanderby cast a pain relief spell on Amity’s leg as she sat on the bench and watched the others embark the Blight’s flying boat. They accommodated Luz with a comfortable seat at the prow, usually reserved for Odalia Blight, which made Amity smile wryly to herself. _If only Mother knew who was sitting in her spot._ She failed to notice that Luz had kept the ruined book as she lingered by the side of the lake before boarding. Amity finally ascended the gangplank and took a seat by herself near to the stern where she could sulk in peace.

Next week

Chapter 7: Setting the Stage

and

Chapter 8: The Knight of the Play


	7. Setting the Stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity and Luz are preparing to take the stage for the school play when Amity receives unexpected well-wishers

Chapter 7

Setting the Stage

Amity adjusted the floppy hat on her head, using the vanity’s well-lit mirror to make sure the long, slim feather jutting from the band pointed backwards. She was wearing a dark purple velvet doublet above black knee breeches and silk stockings. The doublet had a complex entwining pattern embroidered on its front with gold thread. It was, the director insisted, what the prince should wear.

Luz leaned over from her chair at the adjacent vanity where her stage makeup was being applied by a member of the Hexside theater department. She smiled roguishly and pointed at Amity’s attire with a finger. “Dang, Prince Cadogan! The Savage Ages lookin’ good on you.” 

Amity plopped down in the chair in front of her own vanity, grateful that her own stage makeup she wore concealed the heat she felt in her face from Luz’s words. “You don’t look so bad yourself, Sir Meurig.” Luz’s costume had a morion helmet trimmed with gold and a shining silver cuirass with an elaborate pigeon-griffin motif painted on the chest. A prop sword laid across her own pair of black knee breeches as she waited for the makeup artist to finish on her.

Amity hadn’t seen Luz since they had left the lake. The anger she felt for nearly having her secret revealed made her feel all twisted up and she had avoided her crush. But she gradually came to terms with Luz’s deception, and started to feel a portion of the responsibility for it herself. The human girl had, in her strange way, been trying to help her, after all. Amity understood that. And that luz’s actions, in turn, stemmed from Amity’s inability to admit the truth about the intended recipient of her Grom note.  _ In a way, it was sort of noble of her. She just wants me to be happy,  _ Amity had thought.  _ If she thinks there’s a way she can help, it’s almost inevitable that she will try it. I just...can’t let her find out. She wouldn’t be able to look at me again and it would destroy me. _

After she had worked out the tumult in her heart and Luz had recuperated from her injuries there hadn’t been any time left for rehearsals. And so, they were going into the play without a great deal of preparation. They certainly hadn’t practiced the kissing scenes at all, to Amity’s mixed apprehension and relief. On the one hand, she was afraid of flubbing her lines. On the other, she was glad she hadn’t had to risk melting into a flushed, incoherent mess in front of her crush quite yet.  _ There’s still time for that though. I just had to get through these two kisses — in front of everyone! — and I won’t have to worry about it again.  _ The anticipation made her stomach churn. “Nervous?” she asked Luz.

“Nah.” Luz waved her hand dismissively. “We’ve got this. We’re gonna knock their socks off.”

Amity didn’t believe Luz for a second, but felt her anxieties settle a little as the human’s casual tone gave her confidence.  _ I don’t know how she does it. But if she can go out there bravely with virtually no practice, I can too. We can look like idiots together. _ It would have been a different story if her parents were there. Bizarrely, the Emperor’s emergency summons was stretching into its third week, and she was secretly pleased that they were still gone. If they and their high expectations had been in attendance, she was certain she would die of embarrassment as soon as she made a mistake.

The girls sat in the green room behind the auditorium stage waiting for the curtain call. The room wasn’t actually green. Its brick walls were painted off-white like most of the other rooms in the school, and one of the school’s demonic bells hung on the wall. Vanities lined one side of the room, while racks for costumes and tables for props were on the other. Cast members bustled around them, making sure everything they needed was in place or getting last minute costume and makeup adjustments.

One member of the cast wasn’t in the green room, however. Boscha had complained, lobbied Principal Bump, and finally threatened to have her mother call the school board from the Emperor’s castle so that she could have a private dressing room. The director finally relented and a storage closet directly off the wing of the stage was hastily cleared out for the would-be starlet. Amity, Luz, and the other cast members didn’t mind though. Being away from her self-aggrandizing drama queen behavior was as good as having their own private dressing rooms.

The green room had two doors. One opened to the rear of the stage, the other opened to a short hallway that led to the lobby at the front of the Hexside auditorium. The lobby itself opened onto the school grounds where students and parents were filtering in to watch the latest production of Forbearance Betrayed.

The door from the lobby hallway swang open and two green-haired upperclassmen stepped into the green room and glanced around. Edric had his hands on his hips and Emira had hers behind her back. Amity spotted her older siblings immediately. “You two shouldn’t be in here! Didn’t you see the sign? Cast members only!” She pointed to the door they had come through. “Go back and wait in the lobby until the ushers seat you!”

“We just brought our family’s aspiring thespian some good luck wishes and a gift,” Edric said, smiling unctuously as they approached her. 

Amity responded with a skeptical glare.

Emira, grin matched to her brother’s, produced a bouquet of flowers from behind her back that took Amity by surprise. The selection was a stunning kaleidoscope of color. Her skepticism faded and she grudgingly admitted to herself that it was a rather thoughtful gesture for those two. Emira handed them to her and she held them appreciatively. 

“You know, you could share them with Luz. You two are such close...friends.” her older sister suggested teasingly. 

Luz’s eyes grew wide. “Oh! Can I have one?”

“Sure. Go ahead,” Amity said with feigned indifference. She scowled at her sister.  _ Brat! _

Luz examined the bouquet as Amity held it and carefully pulled an orange flower with multiple blooms from the bunch. She held it to her nose to smell its fragrance. It suddenly opened its blossoms wide, displaying fanged petals and grasping stamen, and lunged at her face like a floral hydra. “Whoa! A snapdragon!” Luz quickly dropped it onto her vanity and set her script on its stem to hold it in place before it could wriggle onto the floor.

The green room’s demonic school bell, which normally screamed, announced quietly, “Curtain call. One minute to showtime.”

“Aha! The stage beckons…” Luz jumped to her feet with a flourish, sliding her prop sword into her belt, and joined the stream of cast members exiting to the stage wing. After a few seconds the room was empty but for three Blights.

Edric looked at his younger sister expectantly. “Aren’t you supposed to be going too, Mittens? You have a rather important part if I read the program correctly.”

“Just a minute!” Amity threw the bouquet down and her nostrils flared in anger. Her face turned pink under her makeup. “I thought our agreement meant I was buying your silence; that you wouldn’t tease me about Luz. Especially not in front of her! Are you two going to hold this over me forever!?”

Emira’s eyes narrowed slyly. “Yes, probably, or until you actually tell her how badly you want to be with her.” 

“That would spoil our fun, wouldn’t it?” Edric made a show of innocently examining his fingernails.

“Argh!” Amity jumped up as the realization hit her.  _ I can’t believe this! It was never about making me clean their rooms. They just want something to torment me with! _ “That’s it! The deal’s off! Tell her. Tell her! I don’t care. But if she freaks out on me, I will end you both!” She looked them in the eye and drew a finger across her throat then stormed out the door and onto the stage.


	8. The Knight of the Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final scene of Forbearance Betrayed

Chapter 8 

The Knight of the Play

Luz laid in the center of the stage on a patchwork of repairs that was still visible from when it had been damaged during a fight with a basilisk several weeks prior. An oversized prop dagger with a ruby pommel jutted up from her armpit where she clenched it to hold it in place. Amity was kneeling with Luz’s head on her lap. She had one hand on Luz’s shoulder. They’d both lost their headgear in a boisterous, heavily choreographed fight during the previous scene where Luz’s Meurig had been run through with a dagger from an assailant. They hadn’t practiced that at all of course, and had improvised extensively to the confusion of the director and the members of the ensemble in the scene.

It was finally the last scene of the tragedy; the death of the protagonists. All the stage lights were turned low. The two actors were bathed in the red glow of a single spotlight. An orchestra of instruments enchanted by bard track students were playing a tense dirge beneath the stage, and the audience was rapt with suspense.

As Luz laid there, she was amazed how well the play was going; much better than she expected. Amity had hit all her lines, and she had only missed a few herself, no more than Boscha had. She chalked it up to all the time she’d spent over the previous several days rehearsing the script with a surprisingly doting Eda in the waiting rooms of the various healing witches she had to visit to recover from her injuries. There were witches that specialized in bones and those that specialized in lungs and even healing witches for her back. And she felt like she’d visited every one of them twice over. The result was that she felt completely better and even had a tentative grasp on her lines, but unfortunately she hadn’t had time to hang out with any of her friends or rehearse with Amity. She hadn’t even seen her.

Luz looked up at her from her prone position. “Are we safe, my darling Prince? Have those varlets given chase, and if so, do you see them approach like a pack of snarling demons to take this prize, this final moment from us?”

“No, my knight, my bravest light. I see only you.” Amity convulsed with artful sobs. “It was only you I have been able to see since you pulled me up from the crashing boat and denied the Boiling Sea another victim.”

Luz produced a hoarse fit of coughing that racked her body. “I am doomed even now. Think of the treaty, my Prince. Go back and consummate the wedding’s feast. Abide your new queen and wife and save your father’s domain.”

Amity held her fist to her chest and looked out over the audience. “My father’s domain will not be saved. The treaty was but only ever a brief reprieve from war. It is clear now. Briellen’s appetite for conquest will not be sated for long by satisfying her other appetites. I will not forbear myself from you to save a dream lost.”

“Alas! Alas! My time ‘ere is nearly spent, I fear.” Luz groaned loudly and clutched at the dagger’s hilt. “Death is here to take me. Many a time I have seen it come for other men on fields of battle in the visage of miserable, pecking birds, but I am blessed. It came to me in the form of a beautiful young man.”

Amity ran her fingers through Luz’s hair, brushed and glossy. Her expression was far away in thought for a moment. It seemed to Luz as if her green-haired friend had forgotten her lines. Then Amity blinked and focused on Luz’s face. “The only young man here is me, Sir Meurig. This man bears not the touch of death, but the kiss of life. I will bestow it upon you now as I did before.”

In the act before intermission, Amity had bent over Luz with a troubled look on her face and let her lips just barely brush against Luz’s cheek after perfectly reciting the Prince’s monologue from the cave. _She can’t even kiss me on the mouth? What is she afraid of?_ Luz had thought derisively at that moment. 

She gave Amity a thin, pained smile. “No. No, blessed prince. The poison wells in me and courses in my blood. It is too late for any life. Give instead to me that best of gifts, a farewell kiss of love.”

Amity bent down and hesitated just a moment to look in Luz’s eyes, sweeping her hair behind her pointy ear with her fingers. _Okay, here she comes. Let’s hope it’s better this time,_ Luz thought. The human was totally unprepared for what happened next. Amity shut her eyes and closed the gap between them, fully locking her lips to Luz’s. It was tender, yet intense with passion; soft but unrelenting. It was the most astonishing kiss Luz ever received, and the first. _Whoa! Where did this come from!?_ Amity gasped and pulled back as suddenly as she had initiated it. Luz’s countenance was awestruck. She stared up at Amity, her face burning with heat. The play screeched to a halt as they both breathed heavily. For a heartbeat Amity’s eyes flickered with fear. It was so quick, Luz almost missed it. _Why did she look at me like that?_ Her mind raced to the point of distraction.

Their faces were still only inches apart. Amity hissed, “Now you die, nitwit!”

Luz remembered where she was and her eyes went wide. _Oh, farts! We’re still doing the play!_ She cried out in agony and arched her back, throwing her abdomen into the air, grateful for the healing witches that patched it up. Then falling again, kicked her heels and drove herself across the stage as if swimming. “Ack! O pain! O darkness! It steals away the time I thought I had.” She flip-flopped left and then right like a fish on dry land, threw her arms into the air, flinging herself sideways. “Titan take me!” Finally she made a full-body convulsion before laying still. Someone in the audience snort-laughed. Luz was pretty sure it was Eda.

Amity stood and looked up at the auditorium’s ceiling. “So be it, death. So be it, love. So be it, death again.” She took the prop dagger from Luz’s armpit and, walking to the edge of the stage, turned the point to herself and thrust it into her own. She popped a bladder hidden inside her costume and squeezed it, spraying the front row of the audience with red liquid, and collapsed elegantly by the footlights.

 _Haha! Yes!_ Luz was watching from under half-lidded eyes as the fake blood splattered the unsuspecting playgoers. That had been her idea.

The audience leaped to their feet, roaring with delight and clapping wildly. _Nothing like a good death scene to cheer everybody up,_ Luz joked to herself. She and Amity stood up and came together. They held hands and bowed in the center of the stage, the applause crescendoing in their ears. The rest of the cast came out from the wings of the stage and lined up flanking the two leads. They all bowed together to further applause.

Eventually, the audience began to make their way to the lobby. Luz grabbed Amity’s hand and forcefully pulled her to the green room. She was still in awe about the kiss. “I didn’t think you had it in ya, Blight! You barely got me with that first one, then bam! You nailed it!”

“Hah, thanks. Y-you really think so?” Amity was positively glowing with a wide smile.

Luz gave her a cock-eyed grin. “Would I lie to you? Well...again, I mean.” She didn’t stop in the green room, dragging Amity through the other door, down the hall, and into the lobby where the audience was congregating over punch and cookies.

Emira and Edric were waiting for them just inside, looking coy. “Hey, Mittens! You did great! Loved the part with the blood!”

The smile fell from Amity’s face.

Edric patted her on the head, which did not improve her expression. “We wanted to tell Luz something too.” He looked curiously at his younger sister.

Amity clenched her teeth. She scowled at them and held her breath, forming a bright pink halo around her stage makeup. Yet, she didn’t say anything in opposition.

“Well, okay then.” Emira shrugged and turned to Luz, putting her hands on the human girl’s shoulders. “Luz, We just wanted to tell you...you did a wonderful job too!” She winked at Amity and returned to Edric’s side.

“Well, See ya at home, Mittens. Enjoy your evening, you two,” Edric said as he turned with Emira and left the lobby for the cool night air outside.

Amity let out her breath. Her face returned to its normal shade.

“What was that about?” asked Luz.

Amity sighed. “It’s not important. They’re just messing with me.”

Luz shrugged it off and continued her revelry. “Ugh, this was awesome! I never got to be in a play before. I’m so glad I auditioned. I’m so happy we got to do it together, Amity!” She held her arms open for a hug. Amity stepped in and wrapped her arms around her. _It sounded to me like there is something important going on,_ Luz thought. She let go and, pulling an object from the back of her waistband, held it up with a smile for Amity to see. It was the prop dagger. She had scooped it up as they ran off the stage together. “By the way, I’m gonna keep this as a little souvenir of the fun we had tonight.”

“No, you’re not,” said a voice behind them. They turned to find Hieronymus Bump approaching them, his face and clothes splattered with fake blood. He looked at Luz sternly. “That’s school property, Ms. Noceda.” He took the prop from her hands, then his expression became more pleasant. “You did a wonderful job, girls. My accolades to you both.”

Luz grinned innocently. “Hehe. Thanks, Principal Bump.”

“And do be sure to return the rest of the pieces of your costumes to the theater department before you leave tonight, hmmm?” Bump raised his eyebrows, mushing the folds of skin on his forehead against Frewin’s teeth. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to visit the cookie table before they’re all gone. Good night, girls.”

“Good night, Principal Bump.” Luz said as he walked away. She sighed.

Amity elbowed her playfully. “What’s wrong, Luz?”

“I was hoping to take home a souvenir to show you I do care about the things we do together.”

“Well...if you had kept the book...”

“Oh!’ Luz gasped. “I did keep the book. It’s drying out in my room at the Owl House.”

Amity smiled delightedly. “Then that’s your keepsake, Luz! I know it’s ruined and you were mostly just using it as a hiding spot, but it went with us through that whole crazy thing at the lake. You can take it home with you someday to remember it.”

“Yeah, someday.” Luz muttered quietly. _If I can ever get home._

Amity continued, “Anyway, I wanted to show you something. Remember that shell?” She pulled a pink ribbon that was tied around her neck. The pink, scalloped abomination shell Luz had put in her hands at the beach was attached to it and came up, out of the collar of her doublet. 

Luz looked closely at it. Amity had cleaned it to a shine and a delicate swirl of creamy white was visible within the rosy pink. “It is very pretty.”

“Not only that. There’s something you might find interesting on the back.” Amity turned it over. The reverse side was solid cream colored with a design etched into the glossy surface. It was a circle with multiple offset shapes of a body inside and flowing lines behind it.

That got Luz’s attention. “A glyph!”

Amity nodded. “A water abomination glyph, maybe? I think you activated the other one at the beach by accident when you tried to pull it out of the sand. It’s probably really powerful. I’ll have it with me whenever you want to copy it down.”

Luz gave her a surprise hug. “Thanks, Amity, for keeping it.” When she let go, Amity was grinning giddily. Luz considered her friend for a moment. _She’s acting so strangely all of a sudden. And the teasing from her brother and sister. I wonder what’s going on with her?_ It was a lot to think about. Luz decided to leave that mystery for later. “Hey, I should probably go find Eda and King. Wanna come?”

Amity was still smiling foolishly. “No. I should get back home. I had a lot of fun, Luz. I’ll see you at school. I mean, during school. Because we’re at school now...and I should stop talking.” She quickly rushed out the lobby doors, forgetting to change out of her costume.

“Okay. I’ll see you...then.” Luz furrowed her brow as she watched the other girl go. _Very strangely._

Continued in: 

Part 2 of the Unfolded series

The Soothsayer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by: art_by_night_lite https://www.instagram.com/art_by_night_lite/?igshid=cuw6mvrlv9t5&hl=af


	9. Notice

This is a notice for those of you who are only subscribed to this work. I have begun releasing the sequel, The Soothsayer. You can find it by clicking "Next Work" below this.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my beta reader and also Dana Terrace for making a wonderful world to explore


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